I have never seen a tough female character done very well. The only one who came near it was Lara Croft, but- as you mentioned- her viicious tendancy to steal the eyeballs from your sockets didn't seem appealing to me.

Also, I must ask this before I forget: Why does your hat never fall off? And do you keep anything under it?

Thank you, Benjamin, for making me look back at the several weeks I spent playing Red Faction: Geurilla and making me vomit out the memories of what I thought was a good time.You have done your job well.

LordCuthberton:Notice how this insightful colum has literally NO posts in comparison to the video series?

Whoa, deja vue

That's because alot of people don't actually appreciate any of the points Yahtzee makes in his reviews, just the jokes. Here, there are less jokes, and more points.

So I guess it's good that I laughed and smiled more at this Extra Punctuation then at the actual Wet Review he did? Maybe try and filter a little more of the maturity and respect for the reader into the video's? Not to knock him or anything, but the video's have gotten pretty hit and miss but we all see from Extra Punctuation that he still has some great, and funny, points to make.

Seriously, it's one of the better ones. I found the Scribblenauts one from last week a bit thin. Good work again.

I agree entirely. And being a female gamer, I usually steer clear of female protagonists because they're mostly giant-breasted-fan-service-on-legs or one-dimensional-bitches. Few games manage to give a balanced, multi-dimensional female character. The games I can think of that do are usually RPGs. Ashley Williams in Mass Effect, for instance, was tough but also had a sensitive streak and solid reasons for her demeanor and faults. Oh, and she had faults. And virtues. She wasn't a player character, though.

Oddly enough, Lynn and I were having this exact same discussion... This was after watching Blade Trinity again. Sure, I am aware that a number of you hate it but fuck you, I actually liked it and here is one of the reasons.

Abby Whistler. She is a chic (obviously), a tasty, tasty chic, able to fight as hard as the boys and yet... You honestly feel like if you were pals, you could get a hug without an eardrum of feminazi ear stabbing. She has warmth, emotion, and is generally likable. She has a growing chemistry with Hannibal Kain and looks to Blade as a surrogate father but doesn't judge herself based off of them. She has nothing to prove and a job to do. So she does it and hangs with the guys. She shows a strength without insecurity, which I always find delightful in any character.

So she is tough, approachable as a human, and hot. And damn was she fit in that film. I envied her arms.

Yahtzee hit it on the head. Women can be just as badass as any guy but we still hold them to the expectations of any male character. Be human or you're just a joke.

Most of us don't like seeing women with huge breasts on our games because it makes us look like perverts to our families.OT: I agree. That whole rediculously independant women trope has been overdone so much that it can seriously weaken a gaming experience.

I have to say I agree. My favourite girl in gaming is Samus, and she spends most of her ime in an armour suit. Why? because she has a rich backstory, how are you supposed to relate to someone you know nothing about? (For much the same reason I actually prefer Shadow to sonic.) It kinda helps that she's kickass to.

While I do see the trend towards half-naked women with anti-gravity breasts in games worth rolling my eyes at, what really bothers me as a female gamer is that women are always portrayed as damsels in distress or utter bitches.

There's rarely any nuance in this either, women are either something to be rescued or something to be extremely annoyed by. Sure there are exceptions to the rule, but I would like it a lot better if the bitchy female characters like Lara Croft and Rubi weren't the rule.

I agree with this, for the most part. Feminists are the bane of my existence. As it stands I can get along with most people with any kind of political ideology, but then there are those extremists at the far end of the spectrum. These are the kinds of people that I would see shoved into an incerator and burned alive if it were in my power. The ones that take a sensible fight for rights and equality and turn it into a reason to hate everyone but themselves. Any of you guys ever hold a door open for a girl that was right behind you and end up getting yelled at for it? I have. Typically, I shut the door in the faces of these girls and, if I can get away with it, lock the door so they can't use it at all.

they can't exactly saunter about in ankle-length hoop skirts drinking tea with their pinkies extended.

Anyway, the way that I usually differentiate a badass from a dick is with this example. An ethical man who loves his wife and kids and makes sure to get home every night for supper, and then beats the shit out of every member of a terrorist organization with his bare fists is a badass (ex. John McClane). A dick is someone who acts rude and hostile to absolutely everyone, and then shoots the villains in the face with a punchably arrogant facial expression(ex. Vin Diesal). It sometimes feels like kind of a net difference (I'm sure that's the wrong term) of emotion when you see the protagonist defeat the antagonist. The closer the protagonist is to the antagonist, the less you care.

Also, as for women, I think what it basically is that whoever the fuck scripts games these days are bad at relating to women, so they just go with the modern female steriotype (which is unfortunately, a giant bitch). Either that, or it's the equivalent of the token minority characters in everything from the nineties; a cheap hope that you get a sliver of a demographic.

Good article, although redundant. I can think of just as many male and female game character who whern't just one-dimensional extensions to some sort of weapon. That's just what most game characters are, and excuse for you, the player, to kill shit. The whole discussion on female characters not getting equal treatment is bullshit, because male characters are exactly the same. For all you would be feminists out there who are trying to prove how video games are a part of the patriarchal conspiracy to dominate women, get over it. I'm all for abolishing the gender divide, but feminist theory is flawed and outdated, go find a boyfriend to shout bigotry at, cause I'm tired of it.

Hope you like Brutal Legend, at least the part which brings on the classic Heavy Metal, no Linkin Park or Slipknot crap (At least in the relevant part).

The female characterization was not a problem in the Fallout days, when having a female character was the same as a male. Probably because even a slight attempt at showing tits would result in 6 skin-color pixels and 1 red one in the center. Maybe one day in the future, history books will say that the last relevant female character was dated 2003 and was called Farah.

Pink_Pirate:Good article, although redundant. I can think of just as many male and female game character who whern't just one-dimensional extensions to some sort of weapon. That's just what most game characters are, and excuse for you, the player, to kill shit. The whole discussion on female characters not getting equal treatment is bullshit, because male characters are exactly the same. For all you would be feminists out there who are trying to prove how video games are a part of the patriarchal conspiracy to dominate women, get over it. I'm all for abolishing the gender divide, but feminist theory is flawed and outdated, go find a boyfriend to shout bigotry at, cause I'm tired of it.

Well, the divide will never technically be abolished. Even though I want it to be too. I mean, a woman is physically weaker, and some (dare I say most) females do very, very stupid shit every day. Like one of my classmates, who thinks she is American and talks just like an American blond, and we actually live in Easter Europe. Also, you can't deny that there are differences, and can't stop feminists who think that those differences are bad. Men have creativity, strength and talent, whilst women have intelligence, beauty and charm. Feminism, or rather what it is today, is treating the female, and female only, different. If you ask a woman to have sex with you - it's degrading, but if she asks you - it's alright. You see the contradiction. That is women wanting to be superior. Feminism, should be the freedom of both genders of saying just Yes or No. No female saying she is getting slammed for being a female, no man saying she's trying to use her evil seducing powers. I have to say, that right now, men should be revolting, because I've come across a load of discrimination. Mainly from teachers or other girls. Also, to balance out the things I said about some (or most) females earlier:I really think that men should stop judging women only for their looks.

I have never seen a tough female character done very well. The only one who came near it was Lara Croft, but- as you mentioned- her viicious tendancy to steal the eyeballs from your sockets didn't seem appealing to me.

Diablini:Hope you like Brutal Legend, at least the part which brings on the classic Heavy Metal, no Linkin Park or Slipknot crap (At least in the relevant part).

The female characterization was not a problem in the Fallout days, when having a female character was the same as a male. Probably because even a slight attempt at showing tits would result in 6 skin-color pixels and 1 red one in the center. Maybe one day in the future, history books will say that the last relevant female character was dated 2003 and was called Farah.

Actually, if you play as a woman in Fallout 3, you gain a slight advantage taking the Black Widower perk, because the majority of the in-game enemies are men. How's that for strong female leads?

Rubi didn't really seem to have any character to me. She could have easily been replaced by anyone or anything. She was a generic, acrobatic, gun-toting and bland third person shooter character for a generic third-person shooter. I played the game for a few hours and can't remember any of her action character dialogue. She was very forgettable.

Well. I braced for impact when I saw that one of my comments had been quoted but I got a concise explanation and also inadvertantly got tipped off to next weeks ZP!

Thanks Yahtzee

I have a feeling some of the more storyline based games are getting bettar with the whole jubblies with characters....I mean Characters with Breasts thing especially with Uncharted, Dragon Age and ME2. Although main character Females still seem to be horrendously portrayed

Diablini:Hope you like Brutal Legend, at least the part which brings on the classic Heavy Metal, no Linkin Park or Slipknot crap (At least in the relevant part).

The female characterization was not a problem in the Fallout days, when having a female character was the same as a male. Probably because even a slight attempt at showing tits would result in 6 skin-color pixels and 1 red one in the center. Maybe one day in the future, history books will say that the last relevant female character was dated 2003 and was called Farah.

Actually, if you play as a woman in Fallout 3, you gain a slight advantage taking the Black Widower perk, because the majority of the in-game enemies are men. How's that for strong female leads?

I counter you by saying that I meant Fallout 1 & 2. I count 3 as another game (I'm not saying that it's bad, it's just a completely new game.

Also, if you've done your homework, the Black Widow works on about 10 male characters and 7 females, all of which are really useless, as you can always achieve the same thing with the perk as without. It just requires some more time.

"By the time I get my feelings across most people have had a chance to play through it and so understand what I'm talking about, and all the milky white hype and excitement has drained away to the point that everyone's ready to take another look in the bucket to see the horrible gelatinous thing that they've been drinking from for the last two weeks."

I have never seen a tough female character done very well. The only one who came near it was Lara Croft, but- as you mentioned- her vicious tendency to steal the eyeballs from your sockets didn't seem appealing to me.

epsilon246:I have to say I agree. My favorite girl in gaming is Samus, and she spends most of her ime in an armour suit. Why? because she has a rich backstory, how are you supposed to relate to someone you know nothing about? (For much the same reason I actually prefer Shadow to sonic.) It kinda helps that she's kickass to.

While I do agree that Samus is more to what the tough female lead should be like, Samus doesn't really count because her femininity is minimized because of her armor and the lack of any human features while she is wearing it. This might change now that Team Ninja is working on the next Metroid game, but it doesn't seem likely from early footage. While we recently have seen Samus kick ass in her Zero Suit, it's her Power Suit that defines her, not her gender.

The same could be said for Master Chief if his identity weren't confirmed. While the books do a better job of fleshing out the Spartans, they're still mostly about killing the things they've been pointed at. Also, pointing at the books is cheating abit if you're going to talk about video games.

For whatever reason, Sting seems to be able to write strong female characters. Riviera, Yggdra Union and Knights in the Nightmare all have strong female characters that hold their own in battle and the last two titles even have a girl as the main character. While Riviera and Yggdra Union have a girl get kidnapped, it's admittedly done by beings with god-loke powers, so there's some excuse for the distress the damsel has been put in. The games aren't perfect at this, but they at least give the girls either a back story or character development for you to understand why certain actions are being taken.

Diablini:Hope you like Brutal Legend, at least the part which brings on the classic Heavy Metal, no Linkin Park or Slipknot crap (At least in the relevant part).

The female characterization was not a problem in the Fallout days, when having a female character was the same as a male. Probably because even a slight attempt at showing tits would result in 6 skin-color pixels and 1 red one in the center. Maybe one day in the future, history books will say that the last relevant female character was dated 2003 and was called Farah.

Actually, if you play as a woman in Fallout 3, you gain a slight advantage taking the Black Widower perk, because the majority of the in-game enemies are men. How's that for strong female leads?

I counter you by saying that I meant Fallout 1 & 2. I count 3 as another game (I'm not saying that it's bad, it's just a completely new game.

Also, if you've done your homework, the Black Widow works on about 10 male characters and 7 females, all of which are really useless, as you can always achieve the same thing with the perk as without. It just requires some more time.

Don't the Black Widow and Ladykiller perks give you a damage bonus against all enemies of the opposite gender though. I thought that they did but I don't have Fallout 3 so I can't remember for sure.